Love my Jeep but...

Sport · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2012 12:02 pm

I do, I think it is great. I have had it since new for over 6 years now and with my wifes new car payment, plan on having it for atleast another 5. If I could just figure out what causes my steering wheel to shake/shimmy at 65 mph. looking for ideas. I am going in again to check alignment and have tires rebalanced.

Could it be something in the overall steering system, the R&P seems fine. Bushings look good and no leaks that I can see, I haven't really looked at the column. Maybe wheel bearings but they seem tight when I tested them and no noises, would hate to waste a few hundred and not have it fixed. anything else?

I have read that steel wheels may not be perfectly balanced, could that be it, change my wheels?

Thanks

sota · **Joined:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:44 pm **Posts:** 379

ball joints.
worn out dampers.
worn out tie rods (inner, outer, or both)
wheel/tire balance
problem(s) with the tires themselves (slipped belt, out of round)

LetFreedomRing · **Joined:** Mon Jun 28, 2010 8:51 am **Posts:** 268

I had a shake in my steering wheel at about 60-65mph. Tried figuring it out and gave up. Later on I realized that my u-joints needed re-greased (Waited 10,000 miles since the last time I did them :oops:

) and drove afterwards and my shake was gone! :BANANA:

I also had a slight shake that was the result of a tire out of balance. (Rotate them to see if it changes any)

Sport · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:22 pm

LetFreedomRing wrote:

I had a shake in my steering wheel at about 60-65mph. Tried figuring it out and gave up. Later on I realized that my u-joints needed re-greased (Waited 10,000 miles since the last time I did them :oops:

) and drove afterwards and my shake was gone! :BANANA:

I also had a slight shake that was the result of a tire out of balance. (Rotate them to see if it changes any)

I just rotated them and the steering shake got noticeably worse, that is why I am thinking balance issue. Newer tires but also has this problem with old set.

kjon · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 8:40 am

Check the passenger side cv joint/intermediate shaft junction. I had the vibes, and that's what it turned out to be- of course I replaced a bunch of other things before I figured it out...

M&P40 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:29 am

kjon wrote:

Check the passenger side cv joint/intermediate shaft junction. I had the vibes, and that's what it turned out to be- of course I replaced a bunch of other things before I figured it out...

X2

arengant · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:46 am

M&P40 wrote:

X2

x3

Sport · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:01 am

intermediate shaft and half shaft are both new.

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 11:54 am

if it got worse when after rotating tires it's in either the tires or wheels. I'd get them balanced... preferably at a place that has a Roadforce balancer and knows how to use it.

Sport · **Posted:** Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:19 am

So I can finally get closure on this.

Took it to Firestone and had the jeep realigned per the specs of TJKJ, they got is as close as they could. After driving it is much better. All 4 wheels were out of balance, they resolved that and discovered that one of my tires is out of round. Not too familiar with this term but they said that I was out of acceptable range somewhere in the 50s, they broke the bead and repositioned it on the wheel high vs low side and got is down to low 20s which he said was acceptable. The ride is 1000x better, still a slight shimmy in the wheel but he said to expect that. I may try and get a new tire but the way it drives now I am pretty happy with.

sota · **Joined:** Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:44 pm **Posts:** 379

sometimes tires come from the factory and they're not perfectly round. I've seen it a couple times where brand new tires look fine loose, but once mounted on any rim they become out of round. sometimes you can feel it, alot of times you can see it. as you noticed moving it on the rim can sometimes help. if the tires are still pretty new I'd have them replace the "defective" tire.

Love my Jeep but...

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